Weekly Top 10: Popular Bass Lessons, The Newest Gear and the Most Awesome Bass Videos of the Week

June ended with a sonic boom of bass greatness. Here is the top 10 list of reader favorites for the week of June 24-30, 2012.

Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes: Isolated Bass & Vocals

1. Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes: Isolated Bass & Vocals

Our Facebook friend Leon Wilson shared this alternate track with us, featuring the isolated bass work of Bakithi Kumalo on Paul Simon’s hit, “Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes”. Yep, this is all that’s needed. Bakithi holds down so much at once, yet without sounding like he’s doing too much. Genius at work…

Progressions: A Guide to Making Practice Productive and Fun

2. Progressions: A Guide to Making Practice Productive and Fun

Damian shares his views on finding chord progressions for practice, thanks to a reader’s question on the very subject…

Billy Cobham Group: Red Baron (Live, 2002)

3. Billy Cobham Group: Red Baron (Live, 2002)

As bassists, we love when there’s a great drummer by our side. (And the opposite is among the worst experiences in life.) We should all be so lucky to stand next to one of the all-time greats: drummer Billy Cobham. In this live performance in 2002, Cobham’s group took the stage to perform “Red Baron”…

G&L Introduces Tribute Series M-2000 and M-2500 Basses

4. G&L Introduces Tribute Series M-2000 and M-2500 Basses

Late last year, G&L upgraded their flagship bass line with the M-2000 and M-2500 basses. Now the company has announced Tribute Series versions of the instruments, which offer the models at lower price points. Both the 4- and 5-string basses come in two different configurations…

Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay: Bass & Vocal Arrangement

5. Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay: Bass & Vocal Arrangement

There’s tap, there’s solo bass arrangements, and then there’s this. Bassist Wes Sperry arranged Otis Redding’s classic “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” for bass and vocals fitting to the original. He even has the whistling part in there! It isn’t how many notes you can play. It is just finding the right ones…

Bass of the Week: Aries Basses Senes Custom Bass

6. Bass of the Week: Aries Basses Senes Custom Bass

Aries Basses is a custom shop producing some pretty incredible instruments out of Varazdin, Croatia, including their Senes bass model. The Senes bass sports a singlecut design with a unique hole in the upper horn, offering a distinct look. The bass is completely custom, and can be built with a variety of top woods…

Eastwood Introduces 34? Scale Airline Map Bass

7. Eastwood Introduces 34? Scale Airline Map Bass

Eastwood Guitars has had a busy summer. Rounding out their new retro releases is a 34? scale version of their Airline Map bass. A tribute to the 1962 National Newport Guitar, the new full-scale bass comes in Seafoam Green and is equipped with D’Addario Chrome flats. Similar to their 30? scale version, the bass features…

Player Spotlight: Robert Asencio

8. Player Spotlight: Robert Asencio

Meet Robert Asencio, a bassist from NJ who has overcome a lot through his music. We love his description of his day gig: “playing bass 24/7?. Nice. Robert is our player in the spotlight for the week of June 26, 2012…

Improvising and Groove: Substituting Pentatonic Scales on a Minor 7 Progression

9. Improvising and Groove: Substituting Pentatonic Scales on a Minor 7 Progression

Today we’ll continue our focus on the pentatonic scale with the exploration of improvising over a D minor 7 chord. This time, we’ll use the pentatonic scales of C Major, and the modes we can derive from it…

New School: Or Lubianiker

10. New School: Or Lubianiker

YouTube has helped us discover many talented bassists we may not have found otherwise. One great example is Or Lubianiker, aka Rule of Thump. The Israeli bassist has a wicked sense of groove matched with a wicked sense of humor that combine perfectly in his songs, instrument demos, and video lessons…

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